To Watch Video

You may have to turn my music off down at the bottom, if you are trying to watch the video. Please watch it. The video speaks for itself.

103 / 897 to Go

Praise God, We received a check in the mail today from some friends of ours and it was for $500.00. All I can say is Praise God and thank you.
It is coming and I know God is working on others.
I am still working on the idea for the newspaper and praying it will come together.
I found a couple of good videos that I posted to my facebook. I want to put them on here, but I have not figured it out yet.
Please continue to pray for us and our little one. We still have a long way to go. But God is good.

Thank you,

53 / 947 to go

God is good. We have received some more checks in the mail. Several people have sent in $100. I am so grateful for those who have donated over and above the $10 that we were asking. Well we are up to $530, which means I only have to have 947 people donate $10 to get us to our goal.
It looks like we might be traveling in Nov. so we really need to get the money raised.

Also if you follow my blog, could you please remember our family in prayer. My husband just got home from a 4 month deployment. And he found out yesterday that he may have to deploy again for 365 days in not so safe country. We have some big decision we need to make. We could retire early or have him deploy for a year.
Help us and pray for God's signs to show us what we are to do.

Thank you, and don't forget to check back and see how many of God's people are donating to the adoption.

35 people reached / 965 to go!

Well, today we got another check in the mail for $25. That makes the total to 35 people reached with the $10 mission. It is neat to see the light on the church, going up to the cross. I can't wait for the light to be all the way up. That is going to be so amazing when the light reaches the cross for an orphan. I think about my life and how I was an orphan until I came to the cross and accepted Christ. I am now a daughter to the King. I want my life to be that light, just like the one that shows how many people and donations that are being made. I want others to see what we are doing for an orphan and it spark a light in them to do the same and reach out.
I could not imagine my life without Christ. If anyone knows how much God has made a difference in their lives, imagine if you didn't have Him. What would your life be like? It would probably be lonely, sad, empty and maybe even meaningless. How do you think an orphan feels? My heart breaks for these children, who need to feel the love of Christ. If we as Christian don't do anything, what are we telling these children about God? What are we telling God about what he gives us? God thank you for loving me and giving me life, but I don't have time to reach out to this little one that is needing you. Can anyone imagine with me, that if Christians would just donated $10 a month for orphans, how many children would be adopted? I did some research and found that the estimated number of Christians in the world is 2.1 billion, that is one third of the world's population. We as Christian's have power to change the world for the good of an orphan.
We will probably not adopt another child from overseas. I have found it is easier to adopt through the foster care system. But God has used this experience in our lives to change the world. When we get our daughter home, it will be a wonderful day and all of it will have been worth it. We can see where God is taking us in our mission to help the orphans. We are inspired by faith, and with God's help we will make a difference. Not just for the ones we take into our family, but for so many waiting.
Pray for us, not just to raise the final funds we need. But also for God's clear vision of what our family is to do, in order to make a difference.

Waiting on Blood Test

Well, we didn't get our dossier sent off in time. We had to redo our blood test, because they would have been 6 months old this month. And we don't want our dossier sent back for any reason. We will get those back on Friday and hopefully get the dossier in the mail next week.
It is coming closer and closer. We are still short on funds, and I am trying not to worry. God will provide, and he has. I guess I just see the big amount that we need and I put God in a box thinking he can't provide all of that at one time.
I know I need to just trust him and wait on him.
I wanted to also remind everyone that adoption Sunday is coming up in Nov. We really need to be spreading the word more about adoption and children waiting.
I have some idea's that I am working on, and I hope they will come together easy.
So keep in touch with my blog and watch how God moves.

Prayer for Lovey

I wanted to ask for prayer for Lovey, the little one we were going to adopt. But couldn't because her grandparents didn't want her to be adopted.
I found out last night that she is in the hospital and her health is fragile. I am not sure what that means, but fragile to me means serious. My heart breaks for this little one, who has no one. Please pray that God will take care of her. I am praying for God to heal her little body, and provide her a family. Praying her grandparents see what she needs and stop being so stubborn about her being adopted. God help this little lamb of yours.

The Roller Coaster Ride of Adoption

As many of you may know, we are not adopting Lovey. The little one we were going to name Faith. Her grandparents are giving a lot of problems and it doesn't look good. We had to decide if we wanted to try to fight them and not win or let her go.
It was the hardest decision to make. I couldn't make it because I think with my heart. Well my strong Godly husband has been praying about it for months. He said that God was telling him, that we needed to let her go and pick another little girl.
It's hard letting her go and knowing the fate she may suffer. But like I said, I think with my heart so I am listening to my husband and trusting God.
I will leave the picture of Faith on here, but only for prayer for her.
I am also not going to put a picture of our little girl that we are going for, until we have her in our hands. I just don't want to get hurt again.
She is beautiful and under 2 years of age. Hopefully within the next month or so we will have a date to travel.
Please continue to remember us in prayer and our $10 mission. Pray that God will let everything go smoothly for this little one we are adopting. This roller coaster is an up and down ride, with sudden drops. So we are praying that there are no more sudden drops.

Faith Inspired a $10 Mission for an Orphan

Dear Family and Friends,

We are writing to tell you about the excitement God is doing in our lives. As many of you know we have nine children. Four of our children are biological and five of them are adopted. We have a strong passion for God’s children who have no family. God calls us all to care for the widows and orphans, in James 1:27; “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world“.
We have been praying about how God can use our family to show others about these wonderful blessings waiting to be loved. We felt God calling us to adopt one from overseas. We struggled with this decision, and questioned God’s will. We knew that adopting from overseas would be more money than we had in our savings. We again questioned God’s with this calling. Then we begin to see what his plan was for us and our family. We were to adopt one from overseas so we could share our experience of adopting both ways. We have experienced the joy of adopting from the United States foster care system. We know that there are still more children available in foster care. We are not by any means trying to take away from these children within our country that need homes. We felt God was saying, if we go to another country and adopt, then we are adding to our testimony of adopting.
I can’t explain why or what God is doing with us. But we can tell you that it is our passion that we spread the word about these blessings.
Now to our daughter, she is living in an orphanage in Ukraine. She has never had a family of her own. This little one has special needs, which some people only want healthy children. This little one’s future isn’t the greatest. In researching where we were to go to find that child God was leading us to, we are saddened by the discovery that we have found. These children in Ukraine, with special needs don’t have a place in their country. They will stay in the orphanage until 3 and some times 4 years of age. Then they are transfer to a mental institution. Where most of them may not survive. So you see adopting this little one is saving her life. She will have a future, medical care, and the love of a family. She will grow up knowing about God and the gift God has given her, eternal life.
When we started this, we knew we were in God’s will and he would provide. Darrel wanted to do this adopt, debt free so we could show others that it can be done without getting loans or having thousands of dollars.
The average adoption cost any where between $16,000-$22,000.
We have already roughly spent over $6500. We have applied for some grants and praise God, Shohannah’s Hope (Steven Curtis Chapman’s foundation) gave us a $4000 grant. The kids have walked the blocks selling pizza and Sonic cards. That has helped to pay for some of the smaller things and getting the dossier done.
We are amazed out how our kids have come out to help bring this baby girl home.
We are looking at traveling the last of October or first of November. Time is drawing near, and we don’t have much time left to raise a lot of money. We have been praying about it, and God told me do a $10 mission. The more I listen to God the more it made sense. One person might not be able to adopt, but with God’s people it can be done.
God gave us the idea, so here are the details. If we could get only 1000 people to donate $10 for our daughter. Then we would have the remaining funds we need in order to bring her home.
I was asked if I knew 1000 people, and I said no, but God does!
We understand that some may not want to give money to help us, and that is fine. We will appreciate any prayer, support or encouragement you can give to help us bring our daughter home.
We are asking our friends and families to spread the word and help us reach the 1000 people God is calling to join us in our mission.
When we are home with our daughter, then we can see God using our journey through adoption to spread the word about these children.
We would love one day to open a non-profit grant foundation to help others with the joy of adoption. We have been inspired by faith to follow God’s plan in caring for the orphans.
Will you join us?

Thank you for allowing us to share our passion with you and your friends.


Darrel and Shonette Koebel


If you say, "But we knew nothing about this,"
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?
Proverbs 24:12

Praise God, USCIS

Praise God, we got a USCIS approval this past weekend. It is here and now ready to go with our dossier. That is a wonderful relief to have it and be done with that part. Now for everything else to fall into place.
I need to do some major fundraising, because we are getting closer and closer.
Plus we still need God to give us our miracle with having no problems from anyone.
I will be sending the dossier in the mail probably next week. And then the real waiting begins.
Please continue to pray for us, as we travel this road to our daughter.

USCIS

Ok, I am asking for all the prayer warriors out there, to help us pray. This is the problem. We got our USCIS and we were denied to adopt. They said our income didn't meet the requirements for the number of people we had in our home. I cried that day and got really upset. This journey has not been easy. And it seems like God keeps allowing things to be throw in our path to test our Faith.
Well, after talking to Andrea and Shelly, we found out we didn't do our income right. Being military we should have included all of our income, taxable and non-taxable. Well I have an updated home study now. But the USCIS office says we have to appeal if we disagree with there decision. But that will take $585 for us to appeal. And since it was a mistake, we are hoping that they will just review the corrected home study and approve us. We do meet the requirements for the number in our home.
I did contact our Congressman's office and I have mailed them all the information. So I am praying for a miracle, that the congressman's office can get it over turned for us, without us having to appeal.
I sent them the information on Monday and I haven't heard anything yet. We only have 33 days from July 8, to appeal.
Please pray for us. Pray the congressman's office can help us, and we can get our dossier submitted.